And basically, should this also enable easy navigation across existing pages (without having to rebuilt them)?
Good question, will it support a link to tab thing?
Well, if this somehow enables a linking system between screens within an app, that makes a whole lot of sense to me (especially as it might eliminate having to rebuild duplicate screens in places), but if these are URLs for use by the outside world to enter the Glide app via a specific āwebpageā, Iām not quite seeing its value outside fully public apps. And feels a bit websitey. But maybe Iām just not seeing something.
I may be wrong, but if it enables weblinking with outside world, and if Glide enables webview component for xxxx.glideappio >> somehow, it would enable internal deep linking (with lower response time, but would be a 1st (real) game-changing step)
If itās only valuable to public apps it is valuable to a lot of apps, maybe not for yours, thatās possible. And if people can share the content they want to share directly, itās a lot more valuable than having to tell others: go to this app and search for yourself. And websitey? The web is the best invention since sliced white bread!
Of course. I love websites as much as the next person. And the internet, to boot. But the appeal of Glide, at least for me, is that is isnāt anything like Wordpress or other browser based tech. It feels like a contained mobile app. So the idea of people finding my app through their browser as they would if Iād just built the product for a browser just doesnāt have the zing for me, I guess. Maybe itās the thought of an address bar at the top of a screen, not sure. When Iām sent a twitter link, it opens the twitter app on my phone. Not safari. I like that.
But admittedly, mine is not a public Glide app. Or by that I mean, it requires a sign up. Which would put a barrier between any link.
But wouldnāt navigation be limited to the Webview within that screen? How would that work from a design and interactivity perspective? The top of the actual page would say Back to return to the previous screen, and also the page within the Webview would also say Back. Couldnāt that get confusing? And would clicking on a link within Webview affect the screen of the main app or just screens of the app within that Webview? I guess itās hard for me to imagine without seeing it in practice.
But there are a few past features that had me at a āmehā when I first heard about them and now are fully integrated into my app. So Iām curious to see what this is.
But Glide is in the end nothing more than a web-app, a mobile website. It is no native app. I like that most of the time
Sure. PWAs are just websites, I know. But Glide does a very convincing job of appearing like a native appā¦ and convincing my users, especially. And now with the prospect of App Store submission even more so.
Thatās the appeal for me, personally. And itās hard to imagine wanting to break that illusion. But again, I could be misreading this whole feature.
My guess is both!
Maybe the community meetup today will provide the answers!
yes, i believe it too ā¦ iām looking forward
Yeah, Iām referring to mostly membership or public apps. eg. eLearning. Iām imagining/assuming my ABC course could have a URL of ecourse.glideapp.io/ABC. Now when sharing my app with users, theyāll sign in and be directed to that course without having to navigate/search for it.
In your app, I imagine it could be a memberās link to their content library or to a specific book/post/work.
A use case I could imagine is perhaps creating a separate app that is 100% public but connected to the same sheet and whose purpose is to give browsing non-members a way to read/preview a curated selection of some of the best content being created by the membership community. Community members should then be able to generate links to that public app (and blast them out to social media and whatnot) even from within the membership app (somehow I can imagine, since theyāre connected to the same sheet and would at least be able to share discreet info through that). Then this public app would be styled to look more like a showcase web portal (perhaps even the main information website for the app) with included calls to action to join the main community if any of the showcased content inspires.
If Glide provided conditional logic pertaining to screen size/device (like visibility if displayed in browser/tablet vs phone), I could keep a more āwebsiteyā looking version of the app and a more native-looking version within the same app, then make it mostly public, but with creation aspects only accessible to the native-styled version and behind a sign-in component. Then I might use something like this.
But the idea of blasting out a link to my app, and the illusion of the native-looking version being shattered by an address bar at the top of iOS safari?.. Iām just not into it.
But why would that be the case? Maybe it isnt?
Iām unclear what you mean. The discussion here has been around the idea of links being generated that bring people from the outside world to the app. Links would, by their very nature, bring people into the app through a traditional web browser (be it mobile or desktop). That means the app would include an address bar in that particular viewing instance. Maybe that wouldnāt shatter the illusion for you, but it would certainly shatter the illusion for me. And it would for other users who associate my app with a native app, like the kind downloaded in app stores, and do not think of it as a website.
Is it gonna be a deep link (ie for external access) on within the app only?
And I know it is a website. But many users donāt think of apps as websites (Glide apps included). And thatās important to me. More so than the ability to send links to a certain page. For you it may be the opposite. Thatās okay.
But Glide is nothing more than a webbrowser, so why couldnt it be the same user experience for a user? They click on a link and then go to a page in the Glide āappā with the same sort of look and feel now? So without seeing a url. Itās just another view on the same app? I donāt know whatās possible, I am not hindered by technological knowledge, but I would think it could be the same user experience in the view of the user. But maybe iām talking nonsense.
Iām not sure what youāre describing is possible in iOS. If it was, yeah, that would be cool. But I donāt think it would be. @Jeff_Hager? Any insight on that?